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His reliance on the crossbow was more a concession to the difficulty of closure in the sky than a respect for its military potential. - (Swordsmen of Gor, Chapter 17, Sentence #8)

I knew the armament and tactics of such forces well, having been trained in them, and I had designed my forces, following the Tuchuk model, to deal with massive infantry and earth-shaking tharlarion charges, now adapted to flight, to deal with them. The infantrymen of the sky would be effective, I conjectured, only against forces similarly equipped, and trained. Indeed, the common Gorean warrior tended to hold the bow, even the peasant bow, in contempt, as weapons unworthy of the hand of a warrior, whose proper weapons were the shield, spear, and sword. His reliance on the crossbow was more a concession to the difficulty of closure in the sky than a respect for its military potential. His preference was to bring the combatant birds together, to the point at which, across the saddle, his spear might come into play. Seldom, even, did he have a spear strap, to better secure the weapon. His thinking here was that such a strap might wrench him in the saddle, possibly breaking his back, if the weapon became anchored in a shield or body. - (Swordsmen of Gor)